About The Chapter

The crowd settles in before a Chapter lecture meeting on engineering for alternative energy

In these days of declining oil reservers, concerns about the effect burning fossil fuels has on the global climate, and increasing energy prices, power electronics can play an important role in making best of all the sources of energy the world has available to it. From higher energy efficiency hybrid and all-electric vehicles to higher efficiency refrigerators and air conditioners to higher efficiency lighting - none could happen without contribution from power electronics engineers.

To promote power electronics and support power electronics professionals in the Denver section area, the Denver Chapter of the IEEE Power Electronics Society was founded in the fall of 2004. The Chapter been successful and active with regular meetings and special events including hosting a special seminar by Dr. R. D. Middlebrook to a hands-on seminar "Microcontrollers For Power Supply And Other Analog Engineers". The most recent major event sponsored by the Chapter was the IEEE Colorado Symposium on Electronics for Sustainable Energy, held on Saturday, 17 May 2008, in Boulder, Colorado.

We invite you to attend any of out regular meetings and to participate in any of our special events - You do not have to be a member of the IEEE to attend or participate! We rotate the meetings around the Front Range so you should be able to join us once or twice a year without having to travel too far!

Regular Meetings Are Open To The Public!

We welcome any interested person at our regular meetings - you do NOT have to be a member of the IEEE or Power Electronics Society to come to the meetings! In fact, our meetings are a great place to meet and network with other folks in the power electronics business in the Denver area. You never know what you might learn about good work going on in the Denver area, new information on technology, or even what companies might be looking to hire!

Announcements

Next Meeting
Advanced Power Electronics and Motor Drives for Future Transportation Electrification

Abstract

Currently, the most promising and practical solution to sustainable transportation electrification lies in electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (EVs/PHEVs). An EV/PHEV can reduce fuel consumption by charging its battery from the utility grid, or in the near future, from renewable energy sources (smart grid/micro-grid scenario). Typical battery charging time for EVs/PHEVs is 6-8 hours. The charging/discharging EV battery will have a huge impact on the utility. Alternatively, photovoltaic (PV) panels could be used for charging EVs during work hours or at home.

The presentation will initially review current as well as future charging methodologies for EV/PHEV batteries and energy storage systems. The presentation will discuss the modeling, sizing, design, and implementation of a high-efficiency, single-stage, PV-grid-based charging infrastructure for EVs/PHEVs. The novel, single-stage PV/grid charging infrastructure is universal in nature and smartly adaptable, whereby EV/PHEV batteries of different chemistries as well as charging rates can be accommodated in a single power conversion stage. The designed charging infrastructure can support both Level 1 as well as Level 2 EV/PHEV charging. According to SAE J1772 standards, DC charging of EVs can be performed at 200-450 V DC, 36 kW, and 80 A (DC Level 1), and up to 200 A, 90 kW (DC Level 2). This presentation will also focus on system-level aspects of EV charging. Futuristic PV/grid-based inductive and/or surface charging infrastructures will also be presented for EVs and PHEVs. Power electronic converter topologies and energy management systems for such an inductive/surface EV/PHEV charging infrastructure will be presented.

On-board EV/PHEV energy storage issues for batteries and ultra-capacitors will also be highlighted. Li-ion batteries, although popularly proposed, have been highly uneconomic for EV/PHEV energy storage, overshooting cost requirements by a large margin. Li-ion batteries provide a respectable solution for EV energy storage. However, main practical issues include: cycle life, calendar life, energy density, power density, and lately, safety. These issues can be addressed successfully by using a simple approach: a power electronic cell voltage equalizer. The purpose of the second part of this seminar is to demonstrate the role of power electronics intensive battery and ultra-capacitor energy management solutions, to reach the cost break-even point of an EV. The design and implementation of both inductor-based as well as switched capacitor DC/DC converters for Li-ion battery cell-equalization will be discussed. Finally, the design of a novel, cost-effective DC/DC converter for voltage equalization of EV/PHEV Li-ion battery cells will also be presented.

Advanced motor drives for EV propulsion will be introduced. An overview of applications of permanent magnet synchronous machines (PMSM), synchronous reluctance machines (SynRM), and switched reluctance machines (SRM) will be addressed. Advanced motor drive solutions for both PMSM, SynRM, and SRM will be presented. In addition, power electronic converter topologies for drive purposes as well as control algorithms for efficient performance will be discussed in detail for EV propulsion applications. This research seminar will be useful for engineers and managers with entry-level and/or medium-level knowledge of power electronics and motor drives. The talk would also be suitable for engineers with entry level knowledge of power electronics and motor drives applications towards energy storage systems, electric vehicles, and renewable energy systems.

For all the details, including driving directions and information on the parking, see the Meetings page.

Future Meetings

Topic To Be Announced

Send Your Comments And Feedback To The Chapter

The Contact Web page now has a form through which you can send us your comments and feedback about the chapter. Anything is fair game including:

Topics you would like to see presented at a meeting

A particular speaker you would like to see

A new location for a meeting

"I'm tired of pizza!"

A topic for an extended seminar like the microcontroller seminar held in April 2007

Please feel free to let us know what is on your mind or how we can serve you better.

Presentations From Previous Meetings Now Available

Some (but not all) speakers have granted the Chapter permission to publish their presentations on the Chapter Web site. See the Presentations And Downloads page for the available presentations. All presentations are in Adobe Acrobat format.